Houston International Airport Terminal B Redevelopment
TYLin provided expert, comprehensive, and targeted technical services to support the Terminal B redevelopment program. Our role encompassed the full breadth of the landside system, ranging from roadway alignment design to parking demand profiles, to shuttle bus and TNC drop-off/pickup operations, and construction permitting documents. Technical services and deliverables included roadway and frontage alignments to maximize vehicle and pedestrian capacity within a constrained site, micro-simulation modeling to assess sufficient vehicle throughput, concept of operations (ConOps) for strategic mitigations to ensure continuity of land-side operations during critical construction phases, and detailed assessments of driver and pedestrian wayfinding signage.
Terminal B at Houston Intercontinental Airport (IAH), owned and managed by Houston Airport Systems (HAS), is operated by United Airlines (UA) and had exceeded its original passenger and aviation capabilities. Thus, UA sought out a professional services team for the processor building that included TYLin, and that could design and construct a terminal building that could meet all future design requirements and operational thresholds for landside and terminal performance. These challenges were especially acute due to the site being within an active and compact Central Terminal Area (CTA), and construction to occur simultaneously with ongoing operation at this and other IAH terminals.
TYLin delivered an innovative terminal roadway layout plan that included distinct frontages for each customer population, allowing flexibility for use by different users at different times of day. This layout, along with all of our technical deliverables and services, were guided by the client’s central principle to “do no harm” to IAH’s landside systems to maintain a high level of customer experience and operational continuity. All ideation, planning, analysis, and deliverables leveraged collaboration and iterative feedback with key stakeholders. All design deliverables adhered to HAS, state, and federal design standards.
Image credit: United Airlines